Monday, January 13, 2014

Oh k-k-k-Canada.

There are (at least) several species with the common name 'Bittersweet': Solanum dulcamara native to Europe and Asia aka 'Eurasian Nightshade', Celastrus orbiculatus native to Eastern Asia, and Celastrus scandens aka American Bittersweet. Both Celastrus species (one of which is pictured above - I believe) exhibit red berries and orange sepals/calyx while Solanum dulcamara does not show the orange calyx (as far as I can determine from Internet photographs).

I trust the nightshade reference is enough to make 'bitter' connect with 'poisonous' - to humans if not birds.

And 'sweet' because even if it turns out not to be where they have to take you in when you have to go there (as Robert Frost suggests) ... it is still home.

And this fat old fuck is standing up applauding these kids. Good on you!

The muse turns her back and dances away:

Gotta git get!

Bier VII (the latest in a series of reports by the National Academy of Sciences in 2006) tries to estimate health effects from low-level ionizing radiation - mostly various types of cancer according to them.

As to level of dose they conclude that risks continue in a linear fashion at lower doses without a threshold and that the smallest dose has the potential to cause increased risk.I remember hearing about a geographic correlation between IQ at age 5 and distance from a nuclear power plant. The Bier authors don't mention such notions - maybe they're bogus (the ambiguity is intentional).

That was a good while ago, early 90's, maybe earlier, so by this time it is possible that the generally lower IQ has already met the educational system stretched beyond repair (in numerous dimensions) by the boomers ... and given us a population mostly unable to either recognize or deal with a threat even if they see it.

But the muses are not like rats leaving a sinking ship, no. The landscape, internal & external, is simply unfit for them.